Speaking of good spy novels, it is indispensable to the famous work of British writer John Le Carré, "Berlin Spy Movie", which Graham Green called "the best spy novel" and was rated as "the best in fifty years" by the British Mystery Writers Association, which proves its enduring charm. At the age of eighty-five, Le Carré released a sequel to the book, The Legacy of the Spy.
The Legacy of the Spy
The Legacy of the Spy, recently introduced and published by Century Wenjing, is based on the perspective of Smerley's "right and left arm" Peter Gillam, who begins with a comfortable life of seclusion in France, but his past as a spy lingers like a cloud. One day, a secret letter brought him back to London urgently. Gilham was shocked to find that this time he was not facing enemies, but the descendants of former colleagues, whose parents had names that intelligence agents could not forget: Limas and Ritz. In that runaway event, the loyal intelligence officer and his lover both fell under the Berlin Wall. What caused their deaths? Is it the round field deliberately "abandoned", or is there something else hidden? Gilham goes back in the depths of his memory and has to face the secret he doesn't want to tell... If the past of the round field is a puzzle, then this book is the last piece of the puzzle, which opens the scars and solves the mystery.
The Legacy of the Spy is the ninth book in the "Smiley Series" and the finale. Le Carré said, "After all, Smiley is one hundred and twenty years old!" ”
In 1958, twenty-six-year-old David Cornwell coined the pen name "John Le Carré" in a cramped back room on the third floor of the Lakefield Building in Cozen Street, West End, London, along with George Smiley, a retired old English man. Smiley is stocky, glasses-wearer, and reticent, and does not match the image of a dashing and gold-filled spy like Agent 007. But it is also such an image, which later became deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and was hailed as one of the "most plump, intelligent and attractive characters in the post-war novel", standing among the classic characters of literary history.
Based on his work experience in the British Intelligence Service, Le Carré created a fictional intelligence agency, named "Round Field" because of its location in Cambridge Circle Field. In English, the circle also means "circus". "What could be better to describe a group of spies who are good at the performing arts than 'circus'?" Le Carré said.
In "The Legacy of the Spy", the familiar and love-hate characters appear one by one: Gilham, Predo, Millie, Haydn... Many readers have said that the last "Smiley series" dates back to the "Smiley Farewell" in the early nineties, and they did not expect to see these "old friends" again after more than twenty years, which was really exciting. Where did Prado go after assassinating the renegades? What was the final clash between Smiley and Carla? The book contains many "Easter eggs" that are waiting for careful readers to discover.
The two generations' discussion of sin and redemption is reminiscent of Benhard Schlinger's The Reader. Le Carré writes in the book: "Mutual blame on historical issues is the current concentration of popular anger, the newly popular national movement. Today's innocent generation, against your sinful generation. Who will pay for the sins of our fathers? Even if what you did was not sinful at all in the context of that year? As the truth draws nearer, Le Carré's character exudes a distinct espionage character: "When the truth catches you, don't be a hero, run away." ”
The publication of The Berlin Spy made Le Carré famous, but his identity as a spy was also "exposed", but fortunately, his literary attainments allowed him to make a living by writing. To date, Le Carré has written twenty-five novels and a memoir called The Dove Tunnel, and his literary influence has long since extended beyond genre fiction. Ian McEwan, author of Atonement, argues: "Le Carré is no longer a writer of genre fiction, he is probably the most important novelist in the history of British literature in the second half of the twentieth century. His portrayal of the depravity of our time, of the nature of our bureaucracy, is unsurpassed. ”
Like the old and strong Smiley, Le Carré still has an inexhaustible passion for observing and documenting this era. He said in the interview that the moment he delivered the manuscript, he felt not a sense of relief, but a "deep depression." Life can only "return to normal" when "fresh inspiration arises from the old works, like a phoenix reborn from the ashes." So when the eighty-eight-year-old Le Carré and his wife were "isolated" in a sea-facing house in Cornwall, in the southwest corner of England, it was not difficult to guess what Le Carré was busy with.
"There wasn't anyone around us, it was like a honeymoon on the edge of a cliff. I start work at nine o'clock every day, and if I don't write something new, I feel ashamed of such a good creative environment. It was written very smoothly. Le Carré said.